FLNG Dream Remains - Correction

[Petrovale]

Pngindustrynews.net did its own DD InterOil jettisons FLNG option: Correction

Thursday, 11 July 2013 INTEROIL has confirmed that floating LNG commercialisation will not be considered for its Elk-Antelope discoveries in Papua New Guinea, despite the support shown for FLNG by its founder and previous chief executive officer. Illustration courtesy of Samsung Heavy Industries In response to a story by PNGIndustryNews.net on InterOil founding director and former CEO Phil Mulacek’s plans to discuss InterOil’s FLNG strategies at the 11th FLNG Asia Pacific Summit in South Korea on October 21, InterOil clarified that FLNG was not on the table. “FLNG forms no part of InterOil’s plans for the commercialisation of its gas resource in Papua New Guinea,” an InterOil spokesman toldPNGIndustryNews.net. Contrary to what was on the website for the FLNG conference, InterOil said Mulacek would not be speaking at this event. “Mulacek is a non-executive director of InterOil and does not speak on behalf of InterOil in relation to its strategies,” the spokesman said. While the FLNG summit’s schedule correctly listed Mulacek as a founding director, Mulacek told PNGIndustryNews.net he would not speak on behalf of InterOil at the South Korean conference because he retired as CEO in April. However, the InterOil founder still views FLNG favourably and said this technology was valid, as proven by Royal Dutch Shell. “All parties in the future must understand the technical, value and practical applications of FLNG in the LNG business,” Mulacek said. While he viewed that economics should dictate the application of FLNG in the future, he said not all governments supported FLNG “when they really should”, in a reference to the Western Australian government’s stance against it. Considerable front-end engineering and design work for a floating LNG plant for InterOil’s Gulf LNG project was completed in 2011, with a WorleyParsons-led joint venture studying the topside of the vessel and Samsung Heavy Industries working on its hull aspects. ExxonMobil remains in exclusive negotiations with InterOil over acquiring at least a 4.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas slice of Elk-Antelope to underpin a third train expansion of the PNG LNG project it operates. What InterOil and the PNG government will do with the rest of the field – with GLJ Petroleum Consultant’s best-case estimate at 9.07Tcf of initial recoverable sales gas – is not yet known, although a modular LNG development has long been considered.